Factory Panic

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EU JP
Factory Panic
System(s): Sega Game Gear
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Japan System House
Distributor: Tec Toy (BR)
Genre: Puzzle, Action
Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code JP 1991-06-21 ¥3,5003,500 G-3210 EU 1991-11 2308 UK 1991-11-05 £24.9924.99 2308 BR 1992-04 013440 KR 199x GH1005JG

Factory Panic, known in Japan as Ganbare Gorby! (がんばれゴルビー！) and in Brazil as Crazy Company, is a Sega Game Gear puzzle game developed by Japan System House and published by Sega. It was first released in Japan in June 1991, and was later brought to Europe, Brazil, and South Korea.

Despite being released only two months after the similarly-themed Nintendo Family Computer title Gorby no Pipeline Daisakusen, the games are unrelated.

Story

In the Japanese and Korean versions, the player character, "Gorby," must deliver supplies to needy people in a country where supplies are scarce. Gorby takes his name and likeness from Mikhail Gorbachev, who was President of the Soviet Union at the time. The Soviet Union was dissolved mere months after the release of the game in Japan.

In the Western versions, the player character has been replaced by an unnamed blond boy. A corrupt business magnate named I.M. Greede has been buying up the local factories and hoarding food and other necessities from the people of Segaville. The player must sneak into the factories to distribute goods to the people who need them.

Gameplay

Switch stage

Bridge stage

The game is a puzzle game where the player must guide goods down conveyor belts to people queuing outside a factory. The player controls Gorby or an unnamed blond boy from an overhead perspective of the factory floor. Items include bread, meat, medical supplies, and Game Gears. Each person needs a specific kind of item. Gorby or the boy must step on switches or place conduits quickly enough to reroute the goods on the network of conveyor belts. By rerouting an item at the right time, Gorby or the boy can deliver it to a person who is waiting for it. Once every person in the queue has received their items, the player advances to a more challenging stage. Factory guards try to impede the player from succeeding.

Each stage has a timer that starts with 999 seconds. Items continue to roll in until the stage is completed or time runs out. The player loses a life if time runs out or if a guard injures Gorby or the boy. Later guards are armed with guns. The game can be continued a limited number of times if lives run out.

There are four rounds with eight stages each, and there are two types of stages. Rounds 1 and 3 contain "Switch Mode" stages where Gorby or the boy steps on a switch to rotate a conveyor belt junction. The color of the switch corresponds to the color of the junction that it operates. The switch is only active for as long as Gorby or the boy is standing on it. In these stages, there are two types of items, one desirable and one undesirable (for example, fresh bread and moldy bread). When a person receives a desirable item, they go away happy; when a person receives an undesirable item, they are unhappy (penalizing the player with a loss of time) and continue waiting for another item.

Rounds 2 and 4 consist of "Bridge Mode" stages where Gorby or the boy rearranges conduits to make or break links between conveyor belts. In these stages, there are multiple different kinds of items, which must be delivered to the right person. The player is penalized with a loss of time if a person receives the wrong item.

Gorby or the boy moves in any direction using the D-Pad. He automatically jumps over the conveyor belt line when he moves over it. He can scream at guards with , which is a short-ranged projectile attack that can be aimed in the four cardinal directions. Screaming at guards knocks them back and temporarily stuns them. In the conduit stages, Gorby or the boy can pick up a bridge link with and then place it anywhere with again.

People and goods

Each person wants a particular type of item.

	Mrs. Peabody (おばさん)
	She wants Fresh Meat and does not want a Bone.
	Little Hughie (子ども)
	He wants a Game Gear and does not want a Gear.
	Grandpa Tataglia (おじいさん)
	He wants Fresh Bread and does not want Moldy Bread.
	Pierre (ケガ人)
	He wants Medicine and does not want Poison.

Items

Items occasionally roll down the conveyor belts and can be collected by touching them.

	Weight
	Weights can be pushed onto switches in order to hold them down without needing to stand on them.
	Megaphone
	Increases the size, range, and power of the scream attack.
	Electric Guitar
	Causes the guards to dance uncontrollably, stunning them for a duration.
	Clock
	Adds another 100 seconds to the timer.
	Lucky Star
	Gives the player an extra life.

Stages

Main article: Factory Panic/Maps.

Versions

Localised names

Also known as

Language	Localised Name	English Translation
English	Factory Panic	Factory Panic
Japanese	がんばれゴルビー！	Ganbare Gorby!
Portuguese (Brazil)	Crazy Company

Magazine articles

Main article: Factory Panic/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Print advert in Beep! MegaDrive (JP) #1991-07: "July 1991" (1991-06-08)
also published in:

• Mega Drive Fan (JP) #18: "July 1991" (1991-06-08)

Print advert in Mega Force (ES) #11: "Marzo 1993" (1993-xx-xx)
also published in:

• Hobby Consolas (ES) #18: "Marzo 1993" (1993-xx-xx)
• Todo Sega (ES) #1: "Abril 1993" (1993-03-15)
• Micromanía (segunda época) (ES) #59: "Abril 1993" (1993-0x-xx)

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score ACE (UK) 86 Beep! MegaDrive (JP) NTSC-J 60 Consoles + (FR) 67 Console XS (UK) PAL 90 Computer & Video Games (UK) 85 Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J 53 Game Mania (UK) 81 Hippon Super (JP) NTSC-J 60 Hobby Consolas (ES) 86 Joystick (FR) NTSC-J 66 Mean Machines Sega (UK) PAL 82 Power Play (DE) 51 Sega Power (UK) NTSC-J 50 Sega Power (UK) 55 Sega Pro (UK) PAL 86 Sega Pro (UK) 86 Sega Pro (UK) PAL 86 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 55

	71
Based on 18 reviews

Factory Panic

Game Gear, JP
Cover
Cart Manual

Game Gear, EU
Cover
Cart Manual

Game Gear, BR
Cover
Cart

Game Gear, KR
Cover

Technical information

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
?	CRC32 59e3be92 MD5 784f3ff02e544e3a9cf18b3b1da1f062 SHA-1 94beb8b6334bb9dc104ffdb0ad2bdd4964ed91a5	128kB		Cartridge (EU)
?	CRC32 a1f2f4a1 MD5 4d965f99be3edd9593af1c365d6a2653 SHA-1 cd3e8910a99bf6717e63aed3aa212ead0597e5cd	128kB		Cartridge (JP)

External links

• Video game Gorbachev: how the Soviet Union’s final leader became a 90s retro gaming legend article by Tamlin Magee at The Calvert Journal